FCA’s Alfa-Romeo brand objectives will not be achieved
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FCA’s Alfa-Romeo brand objectives will not be achieved
- There is no doubt that the objectives set by the FCA group for Alfa-Romeo will not be achieved at all over the next two or three years.
- The Mito, which was discontinued in 2018, has not been replaced. The Giulietta, born in 2010, does not seem to have a replacement in the short term. The 4C has just stopped production. The Giulia and Stelvio failed to establish themselves on the European market, the American market or the Chinese market. From 33,000 units in 2017, Giulia's worldwide sales declined to 29,000 units in 2018 and less than 20,000 in 2019. Stelvio is barely better, with 25,000 worldwide sales in 2017, 40,000 in 2018 but less than 35,000 in 2019. Finally, the launch of the E-segment sedans and SUVs (Maserati Ghibli and Levante base) was postponed to better days. Only the C-segment SUV called the Tonal SUV appears to be on the verge of industrialization, but not before 2021.
- In total, the Alfa-Roméo brand will only total 80,000 sales in 2019, at best, compared to nearly 120,000 in 2018 and nearly 160,000 in 2007, when the manufacturer's objectives were set at 200,000 and 300,000 units per year.
- Although the objectives seemed too ambitious, it is likely that the Alfa-Romeo brand would have made significant progress if the recently launched models had been more successful, if the launch projects had been respected and if the Mito and Giulietta had not been left to their fate. It is regrettable that the survival of the Alfa-Romeo brand is no longer a priority for the FCA group, which is also in the process of letting Lancia, another brand with a prestigious past, die.
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Frankfurt 2019 becomes a primarily German exhibition
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Frankfurt 2019 becomes a primarily German exhibition
- The Frankfurt Motor Show (every 2 years in September) is one of the top 3 European motor shows, next to Paris (every 2 years in October, next edition in October 2020) and Geneva (every year in March, next edition in March 2020). The other major motor shows in the world are: China, Beijing and Shanghai (every 2 years in April, alternating, next edition in Shanghai in April 2020), Guangzhou (next edition in November 2019); Japan: Tokyo (every year, next edition in October 2019); United States: Detroit (every year, next edition in June 2020).
- In recent years, a new show has gained importance, even if it is not an automobile show: the CES – Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas (every year, next edition in January 2020).
- The Frankfurt Motor Show is increasingly becoming a German motor show. This had already been the case for some twenty years, as German manufacturers monopolized most of the exhibition, and moreover the part closest to the entrance to the exhibition, while foreign manufacturers were relegated to much smaller surfaces, very far from the entrance of the exhibition. Similarly, the Paris Motor Show is increasingly becoming a French show again, as it was before the creation of the Common Market in 1957. The Geneva Motor Show remains the European show most open to manufacturers from all over the world, since Switzerland has not had any national manufacturers for a very long time.
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Renault Product Plan (2020-2023)
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Renault Product Plan (2020-2023)
- The Renault 2020-2023 product plan has been made public. After a very successful year in 2019 in terms of innovations (Clio V, Zoé II, Captur II), the Billancourt manufacturer will carry out mid-life restyling of the Mégane(C segment sedan) and Talisman (D segment sedan) in 2020, with the Mégane to be replaced in 2023. As for the Talisman, it seems that it will have no follow-ons.
- In 2020, there will also be the launch of the Kangoo III, which will at last succeed the previous one, whose origins date back to 2007. The new Kangoo should be built on the platform of the Dacia Dokker which shall be renewed in the same year. Renault will also launch the hybrid versions of the Clio, Captur and Mégane in 2020. Only the Captur and Megane will be rechargeable (Plug-In). At the end of the year, the restyled version of the Scenic should appear.
- The year 2021 will be the year of the launch of the Kadjar II, which will have to do better than the Kadjar I in terms of sales, as it has remained well behind the Peugeot 3008.
- The year 2022 will be the year of the launch of the Twingo IV, which should abandon the particular architecture of the Smart (transferred to China at the same time) and return to a front engine. Koleos III is expected to be launched in the same year.
- In 2023, Renault plans to launch a small electric vehicle called Zandar, which would take over the platform of the K-ZE electric car recently introduced in China and derived from the Indian Kwid. This product plan does not mention the launch of the C-segment electric sedan that Renault has planned to launch in the early 2020s. Perhaps it will be postponed to 2024 or it has been deleted so as not to interfere with Nissan Leaf's sales.
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Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi group from now on behind Volkswagen and Toyota
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Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi group from now on behind Volkswagen and Toyota
- While the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi group claimed first place worldwide among car manufacturers in 2018, it fell to third place in the first half of 2019, behind the Volkswagen and Toyota groups.
- The Nissan division is the one that is falling the most, while the Mitsubishi division is the only one to improve over the six months.
- The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi group sold 5.215 million vehicles in the first half of 2019 (-5.9% compared to the first half of 2018) while the Volkswagen group sold 5.37 million (-2.8%) and the Toyota group 5.31 million (+2%).
- Even if we exclude heavy goods vehicles (trucks, buses and coaches), the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi group remains in third place, behind the Volkswagen (5.25 million) and Toyota (5.22 million) groups. It should be noted that the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi group does not produce heavy trucks.
- Among the members of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi group, the Nissan group (Nissan-Infiniti-Datsun) was the one that fell the most (-7.9%) to 2.628 million units, while the Renault group (Renault-Alpine-Samsung-Dacia-Lada-Jinbei-Huasong) lost 6.7% to 1.94 million units and Mitsubishi Motors gained 5% to 647 422 units.
- The Renault group's sales breakdown is as follows:
Renault 1,229,658 units (-11.5%), Dacia 395,077 units (+4.5%), Lada 199,162 units (+6.8%), Alpine 2,848 units (+348%), Samsung 33,463 units (-13.3%), Jinbei-Huasong 78,371 units (-8.1%).
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Ford USA has not produced a single Focus since the beginning of the year
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Ford USA has not produced a single Focus since the beginning of the year
- Ford has not produced a single Focus since the beginning of 2019, although this model constituted a large part of the manufacturer's North American production during the years 2000-2015 (approximately 200,000 units per year with a peak of nearly 300,000 in 2012 and 2013). The Ford Focus, which was traditionally one of the top 10 best-selling sedans in the United States, dropped to 18th place in 2019 and its replacement has not been scheduled to date.
- Ford no longer has a C-segment sedan on the North American market, which is a unbelievable, considering that this C-segment sedan market still represents 11% of the total market in the United States, all vehicles combined.
- The Focus is undoubtedly a victim of the trade war between China and the United States, since Ford had planned to manufacture the new generation of the Focus presented in 2018 in China, and thus no longer at the American site in Wayne (Michigan).
- However, the sharp increase in taxes on Chinese products sold in the United States made this operation very delicate, as the Focus would no longer have been competitive in terms of price. The transfer of the Focus to China was therefore simply postponed.
- The few Focus cars sold in the USA in 2019 came from the 2018 production stock.
- It should be noted that GM also stopped production of its C-segment sedan, the Chevrolet Cruze, in March 2019, leaving the way clear for Japanese and Korean brands, an un expected bonus for them. Fiat-Chrysler was the first to discontinue its C-segment sedans (Dodge Dart and Chrysler 200) in 2017.
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